Our sudden and somewhat impulsive move to Oklahoma in December of 2013 was tumultuous and it took several months to even begin to be in a position to start acquiring poultry and livestock.  Having said that, I realize that we were not entirely ready then and had we been more reasonable people we would have given ourselves a year or more to get settled in before throwing live animals into the mix.  But with experience comes such wisdom - and we lacked both.

We also lacked patience.  We had gone through a lot to get here and time was passing.  Back then, we still worked on suburban time -- expecting things to happen in hours and days rather than months and even years like it does out here.

I had done my research.  Long before the move I had poured over every goat book I could get my hands on.  I spent hours watching YouTube videos and reading the best and worst blogs that offered goat advice and information.  I had decided that we wanted to raise Kinder goats.  They were a newly recognized breed - a hybrid of a Pygmy and Nubian - which promised to offer all the good things you get from a meat goat and a milk goat in a moderately-sized package.  There was also the advantage of these goats being a fairly rare breed which would mean that we would be forced to take our time finding exactly the right goats at exactly the right time.

Or at least until May of 2014 - which was probably not exactly the right time.  There happened to be a Craigslist ad for registered Kinder goats for sale within driving distance of us.   What are the chances?  It was like destiny.  We made arrangements with the seller and rented a horse trailer to go pick up our goats of destiny.

At this point, even in retrospect, I cannot say with certainty that we had done anything regrettable regarding the purchase of our first livestock animals.  We had: 1) Done our research,  2) Decided on a breed which would be well-suited to our needs and resources, 3) Committed to that breed, and 4) Decided to buy registered stock from a registered breeder.